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A big hello to the Supporter's Club!

This is the last of 2006's letters from the Band. (Well at the moment it is! - any news and I'll get it to Paul).  We won our last two contests at Pitlochry and at Peebles, and won them in style. No-one got near us for playing and it was a fine way to end a fabulous season. Unfortunately the Wee Band didn't manage to score against the judges in these two contests - we reckon the Judges were in the pub when they played!!

Now comes the really hard work for next season. All the players get the new music at the end of this month and spend the majority of the winter getting it worked out and learning to play them as Mark and Stuart want them played. It can get a bit fraught at times when a particular phrase bites them on Ra derierre! They will be hard at it between now and next May trying to get the Band to a respectable placing in Grade 2 - for that's where we'll be!! No hiding in Grade 3 for us!!!  We will be having our Band Dance on the Friday of our Remembrance weekend (cold!!!!!) and, after this season, it can't fail to be the best Dance we've held. If there are any (suitable!!) photographs I'll get them to Paul to see if he'll publish. (I can hear his computer now ticking away looking for tickets!!)

So to all youse maniacs out there that have given the Band such a lift this season, a big thank you from all of us, and we hope to see more of you next year! Saying that, a HUGE hello to Wendy from New Zealand! Hope Norway wasn't too boring! Wendy was the first Supporter to actually meet this bunch of looneys! Unfortunately due to work commitments the Big Band didn't play when she was there but she definitely met some of the bigger lunatics of the Band!

Slainté mhath n'h' Alba

ANDY GRANT, DRUM MAJOR

PITLOCHRY HIGHLAND GAMES 9th SEPTEMBER 2006.    Paul's version ...
One of the final games of the season … I left Perth with a guest in tow: Wendy Reid (good Scottish name) from New Zealand. Wendy had been touring Scotland for a couple of weeks, right to the north coast, east and west including the Outer Hebrides, she goes home tomorrow. Anyhow, where was I? Aye, we left Perth and headed up north to Pitlochry, did a fast hello to a B&B I know there and went to the games. Little did Wendy know she would be meeting the Denny & Dunipace Pipe Band! World Champions no less, also, she is a member of the supporters club and I knew the band would give her a warm welcome! This came as a real surprise to her, big Andy in particular is very good at the meet and greet business – on another note, sidetracking again here, Andy is available for guided tours, a driver of experience and his knowledge of Scotland is – well, almost near half as good as mine! Not that I am saying I’m good, just that I am “gooder - er” than him! You need be Scottish to understand what the hell is goin’ on here by the way.
 

So to the games: you may have read in my last ditty on the Cowal games, it rained a lot. Well at Pitlochry it was brilliant sunshine! Before goin’ to the games I took Wendy to Edradour distillery for a tour, while she toured the facility I drank a cup of tea with the guides there. So to the games … From the moment we arrived to the end it shone down on us. Did we have a drink with the band? I was allowed one drink as a driver, that’s the lot! Irn Bru and water thereafter, couldn’t wait to get back and drop the car in Perth. Wendy headed away and did her own thing in town, the fish ladder etc then returned just in time to see the band play. We shared some drinks and craik with some of the band, notably Andy and Gary – always a great story from each of them, Wendy was in fits of laughter at both, Gary – that story needs an 18 certificate rating. I sat my tired body down on the grandstand seats (bits of wood coaxed into the hill!) and rested the weary feet. We saw the Drum Majors display, the massed bands and that hair – standing –on - the – back – of – the – neck … massed bands playing Amazing Grace. Stirring stuff. At the end we took some pix and left, headed back to Perth. Dropped Wendy at the Italian restaurant and met up with Andy and Kathy for some much needed grub and aye, a real drink! Well a shandy anyhow.
 

SUNDAY: picked up Wendy, who was still slightly shellshocked from yesterday, and took her to Edinburgh airport for the flight home. I think she may have had a good vacation! Er … YES. So while in “auld reekie” what did I do? Drove into the city and met up with the “driver of dreams” … wee man Colin. He was with a coach group and had just ended the city tour and had time to himsel’. Normally when we meet up, drinks are involved, but as I was driving and he was driving later on, the unknown happened – we had a cup of tea! Please don’t tell anyone or our street cred will nose dive lower than a Rangers supporter at Mass.
 

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